


the finger of blame has turned upon itself

by brahe



Category: Hawaii Five-0 (2010)
Genre: Coda, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Established Relationship, Good thing Danny's there to help, Kissing, M/M, Mostly Fluff, Steve catches feelings
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-13
Updated: 2017-06-13
Packaged: 2018-11-13 11:51:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,178
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11184534
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/brahe/pseuds/brahe
Summary: Danny's back in Steve's space again, because even before they were together for real Danny couldn't stay away for long, couldn't really keep his hands to himself.Or, Danny gets Steve through the shaky emotional ground that comes with healing.





	the finger of blame has turned upon itself

**Author's Note:**

> I've watched a season and a half of this show in less than a week sos I love it so much  
> anyway, first fic in the fandom, and it's h/c which is a surprise to absolutely zero people. not beta read, as per usual  
> coda to episode 2.05, the one where it comes out that kono has been undercover  
> title from the fall at your feet cover by james blunt

Steve doesn't take his eyes off Kono for the next five hours, seven minutes, and thirteen seconds. His gaze follows her around the squad cars, watches her as the EMT smiles and tells her _the wound is really just a scrape, brah,_ even keeps her in his peripheral as he lands a good one on Friar's jaw. He stands rigid, tense, as if he's staring down a mission, ready to jump into action on less than a hair trigger.

Danny wonders if Steve even realizes exactly what he's doing. The guy's a certifiable loon, sure, but he's a certifiable badass, and a part of Danny always wonders if Steve does _anything_ without thinking. _Years of training will do that,_ says a voice in his head that sounds quite a lot like Steve.

So while Steve watches Kono, Danny watches Steve. It's got nothing to do with covering a six, and everything to do with the way Danny knows Steve will be as soon as the front door closes behind him. He watches Steve build up an armor of duty, protectiveness, that only cracks a little when Kono buries her face in Chin's neck.

 

They drive back to HQ to sort the rest of the case. Danny takes the wheel on the Camaro and doesn't miss how Steve keeps his eyes on the Chevy in front of them the entire drive. Danny glances to him, only a couple times, honest, also notices the white knuckle fists and the continued tight set of his shoulders. Steve's fist is on the arm rest between the seats, and Danny reaches - only half blind - to wrap his hand around it. Steve only flinches a little, so little Danny doubts anyone else would have noticed, but immediately opens his fist and turns his hand over to lace his fingers with Danny.

They stay like that for the rest of the ride, and Danny counts it as a win.

 

Kono and Chin are already inside when they show up, beers uncapped on the table. Danny didn't think it would take more than a hug to get them back on track, and he's happy to see he was right. 

Kono's up out of her seat in a second, coming at Danny first. Her eyes are red rimmed, again or still, Danny doesn't know.

"I'm sorry," she says, a little bit broken. "I'm so sorry, I wanted to tell you, but he said he'd come after all of you if I didn't and I couldn't just let him do that, I don't..."

Danny's got his hands up on the third word, trying to quiet her, but he gives up and pulls her into a hug instead, hand holding the back of her head and an arm around her back. It's a modification of how he holds Gracie, and yeah, okay, he's a dad, so what. Like they keep saying, they're _ohana_ , and Danny's gone through a shot-out, arrest, interrogation, undercover, and reveal in a very short amount of time, and it's left him reeling a little.

Kono looks sheepish when she pulls out of the hug. "I'm sorry," she says again, head low. Danny keeps his hand on the back of her neck a moment longer, squeezes just a little.

"Hey, no more of that, yeah? You definitely had us on the hook, but we get it. No one's blaming you."

She looks relieved, like a weight is suddenly lifted off her shoulders, and the smile she gives Danny is bright and full of the sunshine she loves so much.

"Besides," he says, lightly punching her shoulder. "It was getting a little boring around here without you roundhouse kicking perps left and right."

She laughs, and Danny sees Chin's smile against the lip of his beer, and counts it as another win. It'll be a process, he knows, for all of them to get over their feelings, but he knows they'll make it work.

 

Kono turns to Steve, and it's tense again. Danny hovers and he knows Chin's watching too, both of them waiting to see - 

And then, less than a blink, Kono's wrapped up in Steve, her small frame all but engulfed by his. Danny can't hear what they're saying, but he can see Steve's lips moving where they're pressed to Kono's temple, sees the way she nods in reply, brushing her head up and down against Steve's chest. It's frightfully endearing, would be cute, too, if Danny couldn't also see the way Steve's armor collapses in a spectacular instant, the very fine tremors in Steve's hands as he runs them over her shoulders, her arms; couldn't also see Kono wipe at her eyes with a watery laugh, looking at Steve like she's surprised she's still allowed here, not just in HQ, but in this little family they've built.

 

The word _ohana_  gets tossed around a few dozen times as they nurse their beers. Danny's settled next to Steve, who is decidedly _not_  settled, and he calls it a night for the both of them only halfway into his bottle. Steve hasn't even touched his, and Danny's kept up his vigil on Steve until he finally pulled his eyes away from Kono and looked at Danny.

That was all he needed. He stood, clapped a hand to Kono's shoulder on his way around the table.

"We're outta here," he says, not quite dragging Steve along. "Good to have you back," he says, squeezing her shoulder, and Kono smiles at him again, and all is right in her circle of his world. 

 

The ride to Steve's house is silent, too, and Danny's driving again. He herds Steve out of the car and into the house with a hand on his back, keying in the alarm code and pushing Steve through ahead of him. Danny pauses at the door, looks back out at the driveway and takes a breath, because he knows what's waiting for him when he turns around, and he's got to be ready.

Steve's still standing in the doorway, in the darkness. He's looking at Danny's feet or the ground, Danny can't tell, hands a little shaky at his sides. He looks lost like driftwood on the ocean, and this is the calm before the crash.

Danny comes to Steve slowly but silently, waiting for a reaction but knowing it unlikely. He doesn't get one until he's reached out and framed Steve's face with his hands, tilting his head until they're looking at each other, and this is it, Steve curls towards him and Danny pulls him the rest of the way, until their foreheads are pressed together. Danny can feel the shallow tremors better like this, can see the emotions like clouds in Steve's eyes, even in the dark.

"What do you need?" he asks, not even a whisper, but a soft sound swallowed by the darkness. Steve's eyes flutter closed and there's a shaky breath, and another, and Danny sighs, rubs a thumb along Steve's jaw. It hurts him like a shot to the chest when Steve gets like this, guilty and betrayed and so very sad that Danny sometimes wonders how any other emotion exists. Creates an ache behind his heart, and it's only happened twice, and it's never been this bad before, and Danny's almost struggling to keep himself together in the face of this.

"Hey," Danny says, that same whisper-quiet tone. He ducks a little this time to get in line with Steve's gaze, rubs thumbs underneath his eyes until he opens them. He's raw and open and he's clearly hurting _so much_ , and no matter how many times Danny faces emotional hurt, he'll never get over feeling so helpless.

"Hey," Danny says again, and Steve's taking deep breaths that don't quite calm the shaking.

"Tell me what you need," he says, running his thumbs over Steve's cheekbones.

Steve blinks at him, takes another breath. "I don't - I need..." His brow is creased in frustration or concentration or both, and he holds his hands in front of him, in the little space between their bodies, watches them shake. "I can't _stop_ ," he says, meeting Danny's gaze again, and it's frustration and sadness and a million other things he can't quite process yet.

Danny slides one hand from Steve's cheek to the back of his head and lets the other one fall to Steve's hip, curling into it and tugging him closer. Steve's forehead falls to his shoulder, hands coming up in a vice grip on Danny's back, fists in his shirt and arms locked tight, as he presses his face into Danny's neck.

He breathes deeply, drowning in the smell and feel of Danny wholly wrapped around him, lets himself go just enough to ease the pain, to slow the shaking until it stops, until he has absorbed Danny into his soul, let his calm bring about Steve's own.

Danny let out the breath he'd been holding when Steve's shoulders finally sagged, when the tenseness and the shaking faded away.

"How're you feeling, babe?" he asks, running his fingers through Steve's hair, down and back and down again. Steve exhales against Danny's neck, squeezes his arms around him one more time before uncurling his fists and settling his hands on Danny's waist.

"Better," Steve says, and means it truthfully. He walks with Danny further into the house, into the kitchen - where else - and accepts the glass of water Danny hands him.

He's halfway through the glass before Danny speaks again.

"It's not your fault, you know," Danny says, because this is _Steve_ and Danny knows how his brain works.

"Yeah," Steve nods non-committally.

"No, listen, babe," Danny starts, and Steve can't help the way the incoming rant is as calming as the embrace in the foyer. "None of this is your fault. You didn't kill the Governor, you didn't hire that asshole, you didn't take Kono's badge. You did none of those things. Right? Right."

Danny's back in Steve's space again, because even before they were together for real Danny couldn't stay away for long, couldn't really keep his hands to himself. He's running his hands up and down Steve's arms, blue eyes steeled in determination but softened by a love that's so much deeper than Steve ever expects.

"I love you, babe, and I know you. You can't blame yourself for any of this."

It takes Steve some time, but eventually he nods.

"Okay," he says, and he agrees, really, but it's not just that easy.

Danny smiles at him, a small one that's frayed a little on the edges, and cups Steve's face again.

"Good," he nods, dragging Steve down to kiss him. It's gentle and sweet, another kind of comfort he seeks in Danny, and he follows Danny's lead, opening his mouth when Danny's tongue swipes along his lip.

"I think," Danny mumbles between kisses, "that we should maybe not punch government officials. Particularly ones on our side."

He pulls away long enough to see the light blush crawl up Steve's cheeks, and it's frightfully endearing, really.

"He had it coming," Steve says, and Danny notices the rest of the pain has faded from his tone. "Mess with my family, mess with me," Steve says, quiet and stern and kind of terrifying in its depth and conviction. And Danny knows it's not hollow threat, knows at least half of the ways Steve can kill a man, knows the depth of Steve's love for him and the _ohana_  they've built around them.

Danny isn't entirely sure what to say to that, though, so he mumbles _love you_ as he kisses Steve again, pressing their bodies together and giving himself over to Steve like he has so many times before.

Steve pulls back again, and Danny will deny to anyone that he whined, even a little bit. But there's a smile on Steve's face, and Danny can't begrudge that.

"Besides," he says, "it's not like you didn't want to punch him yourself," and he kisses Danny before he can protest.

"Okay, okay, I concede," Danny says, just a little laughter in his tone. "C'mon." He takes Steve's hand and tugs him up the stairs, and it finally starts to feel like a relatively normal night.

 

Steve follows Danny into their bedroom, dropping his shirt to the floor as he shuts the door. Danny turns to him from the bed, and as Steve crosses the room, the world narrows down to the two of them and the space between them. Danny's hands are warm on Steve's chest, running up over his shoulders and curling into the hair at the back of his neck. They're kissing again, warm and slow and sweet, and Steve loves Danny so much, couldn't do half the things he does without this, without him to fall back on.

"Come to bed," Danny says, soft, and there's still a part of Steve that guilt will knaw on - knows there will always be a part of him that thinks he should be better - but Danny's like a balm for his soul, and the weight gets easier to carry. 

 

 


End file.
